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The Malaysia Grand Prix sure was interesting with some fighting amongst teammates taking place. It's no secret Sebastian Vettel wants to win every single time he goes out to race and he did exactly that but had to disobey team orders to do so. Vettel made a controversial pass on teammate Mark Webber which got him the victory as well as first place in the championship standings. It will be interesting to see how badly this sours relationships among team members.

Mercedes looked good once again. Lewis Hamilton finished on the podium in third place followed by teammate Nico Rosberg. A 3-4 finish this early in the season is something Mercedes definitely can build off and be proud of.

The season is off to a very interesting start. The next race is in China next month on the 14th. Malaysia full results below.

He went in against direct team orders.
This will have consequenses inside the Redbull team.
Nico Rosberg had the same orders to stay behind Lewis and he followed thrue on them.
Mercedes had sent LH off with way to little fuel, counting on a longer wet period at the start.
Therefore LH was not able to attack the RB's and made NR attack LH in the DRS zone, where LH retook the 3rd place over start/finish in the second DRS zone.
This went on for about 4 rounds, and then Ros Brawn put a stop to it.
Both Mercedes drivers went into fuel saving mode and finished 3-4.
A very strong start for Mercedes. A pitty NR had to stop with technical failure in Melbourne, where LH finished on a respactable 5th place.

True that Vettel went against orders, but put yourself into his shoes. Knowing that the driver's title could come down to only a few points at the end of the season, why give points away early on? Vettel is the team #1 (even if not official), and is 3x defending WDC. If anything the orders should have been for Webber to let him by. Personally, I hate team orders so anytime a driver disobeys them, I am all for it.

Yes. But:
If Webber would have known the gloves were off he would have defended better/ more harsh.
Now he was cought by surprise expecting Vettel to obay team orders. When he saw SB's move his only option would have been to put him in the wall, which he almost did btw.
He just was smart enough to not do that.
Lesson learned for him I guess.
Expect RB Turkey 2010 clash all over again later in the season

Bottom line is they are employed by a team to drive their cars and win races.
It does not matter for the team who finishes first, as long as it is a 1-2 finish.
By ignoring teamorders Vettel made that 1-2 finish a risk, and made Christian Horner and Webber turn against him. Both of which will not work in his favour for the rest of this long racing season.
So, ultimately his killer instinct got the better of him, and that's why he appologized so publically.
Funny though, a full podium full of people lozing one way or another.
That was a first for me.

They are payed to do a job.
First rule of any job as far as I know is you follow the orders your boss gives you
He pays the checks. Your own ego comes second a best.

Originally Posted by Sticky

You can't turn that instinct off or you become some second rate driver. You either are first or you're last.

That's an attitude worthy of gone by racers
A Formula1 racer nowadays is first and formost a teamplayer.
You need to follow F1 more closely if you want to judge what goes on there.
It's not drag racing for fun with a FI M3. That you can do on your own, and on your own expense.

They are payed to do a job.
First rule of any job as far as I know is you follow the orders your boss gives you
He pays the checks. Your own ego comes second a best.

It's sports though. If you don't have attitude and ego you won't be the best.

Originally Posted by DavidV

That's an attitude worthy of gone by racers
A Formula1 racer nowadays is first and formost a teamplayer.
You need to follow F1 more closely if you want to judge what goes on there.
It's not drag racing for fun with a FI M3. That you can do on your own, and on your own expense.

I'm not disagreeing I just totally understand Vettel's mentality. And I would have done the same.

Joe, don't forget, the drivers signed a contract that they will listen to a team. The fact Vettel will get away with a slap on the wrists means that Horner has lost all creditability within the team and in a long shot, this could actually cost Horner his job.

Horners comments to Vettel and Webber were essentially 'we have had enough of this'...Vettel passes when Mark has gone into cruise and then says oops, my bad.

Ross Brawn - said Nico hold your position two or three times...no mistaking what he means.

The fact he disobeyed a direct order loses Horner credibility. That and the fact he wasn't on the podium (first race win of the season is usually the head honcho on the podium, instead it was Newey).

Originally Posted by ecampbell

Joe, don't forget, the drivers signed a contract that they will listen to a team. The fact Vettel will get away with a slap on the wrists means that Horner has lost all creditability within the team and in a long shot, this could actually cost Horner his job.

Horners comments to Vettel was essentially 'we have had enough of this'...Vettel passes when Mark has gone into cruise and then says oops, my bad.

Ross Brawn - said Nico hold your position two or three times...no mistaking what he means.

They are payed to do a job.
First rule of any job as far as I know is you follow the orders your boss gives you
He pays the checks. Your own ego comes second a best.

That's an attitude worthy of gone by racers
A Formula1 racer nowadays is first and formost a teamplayer.
You need to follow F1 more closely if you want to judge what goes on there.

i followed F1 religiously since the days of Hakkinen and Schumacher. I think the practice of team orders goes back nearly 20 years, where we saw teammates taking each other out to determine the outcome of the championship. Prost/Senna anyone?

How many times did we see Irvine/Barrichello/Massa drive around behind Schumacher, or indeed pullover for him from a commanding lead, in order to ensure Schumacher scored points? And what about the nonsense at Renault with Piquet Jr. crashing in order for Alonso to win at Singapore?

I totally get the need for teams to finish races, but having these manufactured wins via team orders does nothing to elevate the image of F1.

Joe, don't forget, the drivers signed a contract that they will listen to a team. The fact Vettel will get away with a slap on the wrists means that Horner has lost all creditability within the team and in a long shot, this could actually cost Horner his job.

Horners comments to Vettel and Webber were essentially 'we have had enough of this'...Vettel passes when Mark has gone into cruise and then says oops, my bad.

Ross Brawn - said Nico hold your position two or three times...no mistaking what he means.

I definitely agree on the contract but to me it's like a player in any sport taking the shot the coach said no to and it paying off. Ultimately he is the one in the car and in control going for the win. My ego and desire to win would take over as well. I mean how mad can they be about a 1-2 victory?